Difference Between Website and Portal

Differences Website Internet Web Development

Websites and Portals both have a webbased interface. They are correlated terms in the Internet terminology. The basic difference between a website and a portal is that a website is a collection of related webpages, whereas a portal is a gateway to the World Wide Web and is used to access various services of the Internet.

In this article, we will discuss the important differences between website and portal. Let's start with a basic introduction of what websites and portals are.

What is a Website?

A Website is a collection of related webpages and is made to available under one domain on the World Wide Web. The websites are hosted on a web server using a web hosting service. This allows the web pages and the content of the website to be accessed by people all over the world through the internet.

The fundamental unit of a website is the web content that is the information on a webpage of the website. A website also has a webpage called the homepage through which the user can navigate the whole website.

What is a Portal?

A portal is a knowledge management system that helps in providing a single point of access. A portal delivers the facilities for companies and organizations to create, share, interchange, and reuse the knowledge.

A portal is usually a private location on the Internet that can be accessed through a unique URL and a login ID and password. The content of the portal is protected by the user id and password. The content of a portal is dynamic and thus can be changed frequently. In case of portals, the content is obtained from difference sources.

Difference between Website and Portal

The following table highlights the important differences between a website and a portal −

Website	Portal
It is a location on the Internet.	It helps provide a single point of access.
It can be accessed with the help of a URL (uniform resource locator).	At this access point, the traffic is limited, and is given to a specific set of users only.
It is generally owned by an organization.	It is user-centric.
The user can’t interact with a website.	It provides a two-way communication between user and portal.
It doesn’t necessarily belong to a knowledge domain.	It acts as a gateway to a domain of specific knowledge.
The information sources don’t have to be updated frequently.	The information sources have to be regularly updated
A website has a simple construction.	A portal has modular construction.
Website renders the same content for all people.	Portal renders different content for a specific user.
Website uses simplified security and control mechanism.	Portal has complex security and control mechanism.

Conclusion

We listed all the major differences between a website and a web portal on the basis of different parameters. The most significant difference between the two is that a website renders public information to users, while a portal renders personalized information to users.